A Beginner’s Guide to Hiring the Most Effective Content Writer

The content on your website can determine the level of success you have converting visitors into customers. While some business owners are capable of keeping up with their content needs over time, most companies can benefit from hiring a content writer from copywriting services to keep their website fresh and relevant.

It’s important to create a steady flow of quality content in order to capture and keep the attention of your target audience, but in order to do that, you need to find the best content writers. After all, the overall quality of your content plays a significant role in whether people will visit your website in the first place, as well as return at a future date.

What Is Content Writing?

Your website needs informative and engaging content.

Before we talk about hiring a writer to help with your SEO content writing, it’s important to explore what it is and why it is so important to use to your advantage. Today’s consumers are far more likely to turn to the Internet to gather information before they make any purchasing decision, no matter how large or small. If your website doesn’t include informative content to help them generate an opinion on the products and services they need, they won’t see you as an expert in your field.

Make No Mistakes!

Make sure your content is error free.

In order to showcase yourself as a leader in your industry, you need to make sure the content you publish is error-free and informative. There’s nothing more damaging than posting content with spelling or grammatical errors. Many Internet users may easily overlook these mistakes, but it can leave a negative impression on potential customers, driving them to turn to your competitors instead. Hiring a content writer to handle your content writing can be your best chance of preventing errors and typos in your SEO content.

Keyword Research Is Essential

You may think you know which keywords you should be using, but have you completed keyword research to ensure you are making the right choices? Most companies don’t know how to look for the best keywords for their content. However, copywriting services know how to research the most effective keywords and will help you determine which ones your target audience are searching for, as well as which ones will be easier to rank for. While it’s important to focus more on the quality of your content than using your keywords the appropriate number of times, choosing the right keywords is essential if you want to drive more business to your website.

Analytics Play a Major Role

Another common mistake companies make is creating content and then forgetting about it after it’s posted. Many small business owners think writing and posting good content is enough, but half the battle is looking at how your content is stacking up against your competitors. Hiring a content writing service allows you to pay close attention to how your content is performing without sacrificing other aspects of managing your business at the same time.

There are many analytical tools available to help you determine how well your keywords are functioning and whether there are others you should be using instead. Experienced content writers use these tools to guide their writing and to make decisions regarding changes that may need to be made along the way.

Your Voice Is Important

Make sure the tone of your blog matches you business brand.

The last thing you want on your website is boring, cookie cutter content that sounds exactly like what’s on your competitors’ websites. An experienced content writing team will be able to tailor their writing to better reflect the tone you want to portray on your website and social media accounts. They will work closely with you to determine what type of voice you want to use and implement it into the content created just for you.

Think about whether you want your content to be more casual or formal. This will help shape the rest of the writing style your content writing service uses. Without unique content, you won’t stand apart from your competitors and will struggle with your traffic and conversions.

Careful Selection of Topics

The subject matter you choose can play a major role in creating more conversions for your business. There are likely many obvious and general topics you can include in your blog. While it’s good to write on these matters, you need to venture into other themes in order to reach the largest percentage of your target audience and convert more of those visitors into leads. Sometimes it can be useful to get an outside perspective on your business and industry. In fact, your SEO content writing services should provide topic research as part of their package to give you greater variety. A content writing company can also help you approach stale topics from a new angle to help you stand apart.

Keep It to the Point

Stay on point throughout your article.

It can be tempting to create content that covers a vast array of topics because you want to fit as much into a blog post as possible. Unfortunately, this can be one of the fastest ways to lose your readers and turn them off your company. Instead, your content writer should select one solitary topic to cover in each blog post.

This may mean some of your posts are longer than others, but the overall length has little effect on whether people will read it. In fact, if you have a longer piece of content that is well-written and informative and compare it to a short piece that contains too many keywords and isn’t easy to follow, studies show more people will read through the longer piece. However, it’s important to tailor the length of the post to the information you are trying to portray. A more in­-depth topic will require a longer post.

Create a Stellar Title

It’s easy to treat the title as an afterthought, working hard to create quality content and adding a title at the end based on what you wrote. While it’s critical for the title to match the topic, you should spend almost as much time on choosing the right headline as you do on creating content. When you hire a quality content writer to help with your content creation tasks, they will focus on drafting a headline that attracts attention and entices people to read your content. Some of the most popular types of titles include:

Lists

Secrets

How to

Best of

Why

Sometimes coming up with the headline is one of the most difficult aspects of writing content, which is why it is a task best left to the professionals.

Lead in with Interest

The lead in should grab the reader’s attention.

Your biggest challenge is hooking your readers into reading further down the page. Because the introduction, or lead, is located at the beginning of the post, it is most likely to be read by just about everyone who clicks on your article. Whether they continue will depend on how strong your lead is.

There are several strategies your content writer can use to create a lead in that generates interest among your readers. Perhaps there is a story that can be told to make the topic more relatable. Another option is to provide statistics that relate to the theme of the post, making readers want to learn more. Lesser-known facts, contrary viewpoints and promises of exclusive information can all be effective methods of drawing readers into the rest of the article.

Keep the Hype to a Minimum

Hype can be a great way to get people excited about something, but at the same time, it can be seen as a manipulative tactic businesses use to draw your reader in. For this reason, it is best to work with content writing services that don’t rely on hype to keep readers coming back to your website.

Over time, this type of excitement naturally wanes, leaving you struggling to entice people to return. Instead, focus on making every piece of content you publish believable. When people feel they can relate to your business, they are more likely to turn to you for the solutions they require.

Originality Is Key

Duplicate content, even on your own site, will hurt SEO ranking.

Search engines are strict regarding duplicate content, even when there are only some similarities. There may not be an infinite number of topics available. In fact, some matters should be discussed, even when they have been covered by other businesses in your industry. However, it’s important for content writing services to be able to put a new spin on every piece they create. This will help you stand apart from your competitors and show your customers and prospects you are the company that can resolve their problems and provide them with the solutions they’ve been looking for.

Experienced Search Engine Marketers

Stay on top of search engine algorithm updates.

Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms in order to provide their users with the best possible experience. This can make writing your own content difficult. Few business owners have the time to keep updated on the latest changes in search engine optimization.

However, because content writers make it their business to know how to target the right audience and boost search rankings, hiring them to do your work for you will ensure you are making the most of the latest search engine optimization techniques. They know as much about search engine marketing as you do about your industry.

Social Media Marketing Is Crucial

Social media can spread the word about your web content updates.

In addition to appealing to the search engines, it’s important to know how to spread the word about your newest blog posts and other content. The best way to do this is through social media platforms. While some people still view these platforms as a method of keeping in touch with family and friends, it has become an effective way for businesses to connect with their target audience on a new level.

Consumers love being able to interact with their favorite companies, and businesses can take advantage of the increased reach social media can provide. However, it can be a time-consuming task to create posts and time them properly. Content writers are experienced in social media marketing, helping you make the most of every avenue possible to reach your targets.

Keep It Simple

Another advantage of using a copywriting services is their ability to keep posts as simple as possible. When you write your own, it’s easy to fall into using industry jargon because that’s what you’re used to. Unfortunately, many of your readers aren’t familiar with these terms, which can make your content difficult to read and understand.

Experienced content writers can help keep your posts in simple terms so the average individual can understand what you are trying to share. In addition to eliminating the industry jargon, you should keep sentences short and concise, as well as limit the size of paragraphs. Large blocks of text can drive people away from your site.

A Full-Service Solution

All content writing services are not created equal. Look for one that offers everything you need.

Before you choose any content writer to help with your content marketing, make sure the SEO content writing service you hire offers everything you need to create a successful marketing plan for your business. There are some companies specializing in content creation, as well as those focusing on social media marketing or other elements of digital marketing. However, hiring these companies would mean you need to work with a number of businesses toward one goal. This can quickly lead to miscommunication and other major issues. Choosing a full-service solution will protect your business and ensure everything is done through a streamlined process for a smooth transition.

If you’ve been thinking about hiring a content writer to take care of your marketing needs, it’s critical to know what you should be looking for. All content writing services promise results, but not all of them can offer the same solutions. Knowing what you should look for can help guide you through the process so you can find a company you can rely on to help you reach your target audience.

Are you looking for better ways to reach your target audience? Contact us. Our full-service content marketing team features experienced writers and editors who are ready to help you make the best impression on your customers and prospects.

For a free copy of our latest eBook, How Dogfooding Put Us on Page One, click here. It’s a step by step guide on how our content writing hooks our target market the first time and keeps them coming back for more!